Star Wars Gone Total Meltdown

As someone that grew up watching Star Wars, enjoying immersing myself into the lore, it saddens me to see that it has gone total nuclear meltdown.

I think for a lot of us, The Force Awakens instilled confidence in the franchise, especially after the awful prequels. Yes, the film played it safe by following the plot points and visuals of A New Hope, but overall it seemed that Disney could handle the franchise.

Then came Rogue One, an original film that benefited from great visuals and a climatic action sequence, but was weakened by paper thin characters and director changes. It was also a story that was already explained in the original Dark Forces, a PC FPS where it took only one person and a pilot to obtain the death star plans. Rogue One showed potential in exploring different stories within the universe, which could strengthen the lore, but it could also cheapen the experience if churned out too fast.

The came The Last Jedi, a film that visually looked great, though the casino scene reminded me too much of the prequels, but it flipped the script one everything. Force Awakens was about finding Luke, and then The Last Jedi kills him off. Not just that other fan favorite characters are taken out to pasture and shot. Generally speaking, fans were not happy, but I was still willing to muster some faith in the franchise.

Then came Solo, a the first Star Wars films to be a total failure, a film touched by different directors, plagued with re-shoots, and yet it lost $50 million. The fans were not happy and neither was Disney.

I could live with this. I would still watch the next film, and be interested if it wasn’t for the dumpster fire that came next.

So, actress Kelly Tran gets harassed by trolls and assholes for her role as Rose in The Last Jedi. Assholes and trolls thrive on the internet and there’s very little that can be done in most cases other than block, mute, and ignore. Trust me, if you ignore a troll it’ll tire out and go away, in most cases. This harassment led to Tran lashing out at the fanbase.

Because of Solo was such a disaster, fans were going after Kathleen Kennedy, at that time president of Lucasfilm, and she didn’t hold back. Kennedy did the one thing no creator should ever do, attack the fan base and blame them, blame the fans, for the failure. Every fan base is going to have assholes, but they make the minority. The internet makes it possible for the minority to be very vocal, and as a result the small assholes sound like giant assholes just spewing wet shit everywhere and on everything.

Since then Disney has sent conflicting messages about the future of Star Wars, informing some sources that all projects are on hold, and informing others that production is still underway. I think this is for Disney to get a better idea if fans want the franchise to continue. But here’s a reality check, Disney bought Star Wars for $4 billion dollars. Disney wants these movies to come out, and they want these movies to do well. Disney, like any business, will operate based on what sells, and will make changes to meet demand.

So far, this article hasn’t touched the social justice warrior progressive messages that have crept into Star Wars. Some stuff I don’t see a problem with, other things seem annoying and completely unnecessary.

Black stormtrooper? I’m fine with, don’t care one way or the other.

Strong female lead that’s a blend of Luke and Han, sure, but seems overpowered and cheap. Ripley is a good example of a strong female lead that isn’t overpowered.

No bad female leaders. The Last Jedi had a chance to upswing during the mutiny part, but for some reason that story line was nipped in the bud and comes across utterly pointless.

Lando sexually attracted to robots, why does that matter? Is there a love scene between Lando and a droid, because if there isn’t then why would I care?

Whether for copy and paste story telling, cluster fuck of directing and paper thin characters, or for SJW progressive messages, fans are not happy and it makes things worse when those that work on the films blame the fans for their loss.

Imagine if I blamed the readers for a failed Deadman’s Tome issue? That would be like flinging feces at a customer for not liking a product. Just a terrible idea.

Disney should know better, and I think they do, but it’s too late to stop it.